Jump to content

Anonymous P2P

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Shaddack (talk | contribs) at 22:16, 13 January 2006 (Category:Anonymous file sharing networks). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

An anonymous P2P computer network is a particular type of peer-to-peer network in which the users and their nodes are pseudonymous by default. The primary difference between regular and anonymous networks is in the routing method of their respective network architectures. These networks allow for unfettered free flow of information, legal or otherwise.

The P2P community's interest in anonymous P2P has increased rapidly in recent years for many reasons, including distrust of government (especially in undemocratic regimes), and digital imprimatur. Such a network may also appeal to those wishing to share copyrighted music files illegally - the Recording Industry Association of America has successfully tracked and threatened to sue some users on non-anonymous P2P networks.

Anonymous P2P as a misnomer

The name anonymous P2P is somewhat of a misnomer. This is because by design, a network node must be pseudonymous since it must have an "address" at which it can be reached by other peer nodes in order to exchange data. However, usually this address, especially on anonymous networks, does not contain any directly identifiable information. Thus a user is highly, but not completely, anonymous. (In friend-to-friend networks, only your friends can know that your address is used to exchange files.)

When receiving data on any network it must come from somewhere and data must have been requested by someone. The anonymity comes from the idea that no one knows who requested the information as it is difficult - if not impossible - to determine if a user requested the data for himself or simply requested the data on behalf of another user. The end result is that everyone on an anonymous network acts as a universal sender and universal receiver to maintain anonymity.

If people are only universal receivers and do not send, then one would know that the information they were requesting was for themselves only, removing any plausible deniability that they were the recipients (and consumers) of the information. Thus, in order to remain anonymous, one must ferry information for others on the network.

Uses of anonymous P2P

There are many personal uses of anonymous P2P technology which include: anonymous websurfing to prevent the tracking of visitors; blocking governments from collecting lists of website visitors; circumvent censorship by employers, ISPs, schools and government; protecting whistleblowers.

Governments are also interested in anonymous P2P technology. The United States Navy is financing the development of Free Haven's Onion Routing Tor network for politically sensitive negotiations and to aid in hiding the identity of government employees for intelligence gathering work.

Anonymous P2P networks are also used for criminal intent, such as the distribution of child pornography.

Views on the desirability of anonymous P2P

Proponents of anonymous P2P sometimes argue that such technology is desirable and in some cases necessary to ensure freedom of speech and the free flow of information. They claim that true freedom of speech, especially on controversial subjects, is difficult or impossible unless individuals can speak anonymously. They argue that if anonymity were not possible, one could be subjected to threats or reprisals for voicing an unpopular view. This is one reason why voting is done by secret ballot in many democracies.

Opponents argue that while anonymous P2P systems may support the protection of unpopular speech, it also protects illegal activities not protected under free speech, such as fraud, libel, the exchange of illegal pornography, the planning of criminal activities, distribution of untraceable spam, or denial-of-service attacks. They hold that the advantages offered by such systems do not outweigh these disadvantages, and that existing communication channels are already sufficient for unpopular speech.

Consequences of P2P anonymity

Pornography trading is common on anonymous P2P networks, and some believe that the networks aid terrorism. There are several responses to these criticisms, one being that information is neutral and that it is people acting on the information that is good or evil. A second is that these current issues are examples of moral panics, and that if anonymous peer-to-peer networks had been around in the 1950s or 1960s, they might have been targeted for carrying information about civil rights or anarchism.

Other issues include:

  • Anonymous spam, and DDos attack can be performed.
  • It is difficult or impossible to uphold laws that can be broken through P2P networks. This could lead to the breakdown of intellectual property (though see digital rights management).
  • With anonymous money, it becomes possible to arrange anonymous markets where one can buy and sell just about anything anonymously. Assassination markets would be the dark side of this. Note that the transfer of physical goods between buyer and seller may still compromise anonymity.
  • It is easy to publish any information you want without the possibility of having your physical identity revealed. This could be used to openly publish information that governments forbid, like child pornography, but on the other hand, controversial information which the government wants to keep hidden, such as details about corruption issues, could still be published.
  • Anonymous money could be used to avoid tax collection. That could lead to a movement towards anarcho-capitalism. It is highly unlikely that all necessary transactions could be done anonymously, however, and a government could still rely on property taxes (possibly raising them).

Some friend-to-friend networks allow you to control what kind of files your friends exchange with your node, in order to stop them from exchanging files that you disapprove of.

A common ideal for anonymous peer to peer networks is to make it impossible to hinder the spread of information. This is typically achieved through encryption, making one kind of information indistinguishable from any other.

Technical drawbacks of current anonymous P2P networks

There are a variety of drawbacks in the current design of many anonymous P2P applications and networks. One of the major ones is that it is difficult or impossible to hide the fact you are running such an application, meaning that a government could simply outlaw its use to prevent the free flow of information. In countries where strong encryption is forbidden, governments have easy leverage to forbid the usage of anonymous P2P.

Detection of the use of these applications could be done by a person's ISP through the use of nonstandard ports like https or pop-ssl by default (this solution, along with using a layer of standard ssl, would be a very simple form of steganography). Traffic analysis of all your links by your ISP could easily show that you automatically forward some documents. A solution to this could be to send random padding bytes even when the links are inactive. While this is an effective defense, it creates a constant bandwidth overhead.

Anonymous P2P clients

Hypothetical or defunct networks

See also

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anonymous_P2P&oldid=35070366"